“Come here, kitten,” Matthew said, patting the sofa.
After she sat beside him, he put his arm around her shoulders and drew her close.
“You shall have to drink all that or risk offending my staff.”
When she stiffened in dismay, he laughed.
“I’m speaking in jest. You are understandably nervous in a new place.”
She nodded, glad he understood. “It shows, does it?”
“Just a little. But if you drink all that, you’ll spend your night in the water-closet, so I might encourage you to restrict yourself to sharing a glass of brandy with me, and then we can retire early.
“We can?” she asked, deciding not to tell him he shouldn’t mention the water-closet. She supposed as husband and wife, they could speak more freely.
He nodded. “Unless you need to write down the names of everyone with whom you spoke today.”
She laughed. “No, I think I can remember every detail without doing that. But are we allowed?”
“Are we allowed what?” he asked, plainly perplexed.
Her cheeks heated, and she buried her face against his chest and mumbled into his coat.
“I cannot understand you, lady wife,” he said.
Sighing, she tried again. “Can we retire to our bedroom while it is still light out? What will the staff think?”
For some reason, that struck him as exceedingly funny, and he laughed heartily, causing her head to jiggle on his chest until she sat up.
“You are Lady Foxford now,notMrs. Princum-Prancum. And the longer we wait, the worse your nervousness shall grow. So, let us get to bed. We can always send for a late supper delivered to our room after.”
“After,” she murmured, letting him take her hand and draw her to the door. In the hallway, they met two maids, each carrying a tray with everything she’d ordered.
“I am terribly sorry,” she began. She was starting her management of the household very poorly. To make it less wasteful, she handed Matthew a glass of brandy and took the other one.
“Please, enjoy the tea yourselves and give the cook this glass of wine with our thanks.”
Then he tugged her away from the wide-eyed maids.
“They think I am ridiculous,” she said on the stairs. “Look, I’m holding a glass and I still have my gloves on!”
“Nonsense,theythink you are generous.Ithink you’re ridiculous.” And he escorted her into their bedroom.
“What about Diana?” she asked belatedly.
“She definitely thinks you’re ridiculous, too.”
“Foxford,” she begged, “stop teasing me at every turn.”
“You won’t say that later,” he promised mysteriously. Before she could ask, he added, “Mrs. Caldwell has strict instructions that we are not to be disturbed, not by a little girl or her kittens or even Clara, the all but bald doll.”
Purity laughed.
“Our little girl will be put to bed after her dinner with a story and a hug,” he promised. “But right now, it’s your turn.”
To be put to bed!That sobered her, and unthinkingly, Purity took a large drink from the brandy, imagining it to be smooth as fruity red wine.
“Sweet Mary!” she exclaimed around the coughing and the spluttering. It was a shocking heat, burning its way down her throat and somehow having got into her lungs, as well.
